


Shield my Bruised Heart

by MagdaTheMagpie



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fanboy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:01:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27453928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagdaTheMagpie/pseuds/MagdaTheMagpie
Summary: Tony has always been a fanboy where Captain America is concerned, not that he advertises it. Not on purpose.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 61





	Shield my Bruised Heart

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this by mistake one day. I regret nothing and it's about time I post it.

“Hey, Pep! What did I do wrong now?”

Tony knew he must have done something a bit not good or she wouldn't be calling him herself if she could help it. Their relationship had been strained, to say the least, since they broke it off, even if she was the one to initiate it. Maybe he should have fought for her? Was that what she had wanted? But he hadn't, because he had always known she was too good for him, and after that whole Extremis mess, he had realised it was too selfish on his part to want to keep her around him, making her a target as sure as painting one himself on her back in bright red and gold paint.

“Nothing recently… I think. But you know how you used to skip meetings halfway through and set up a clandestine workshop somewhere to kill time?”

Tony hummed at the fond memories.

“Well… we think we found one, and we're really not sure what it is you were tinkering with this time. So if you wouldn't mind-”

“On my way!” he hung up and walked up to the landing pad as he called his armour to him.

He loved a mystery and he seriously had no idea what he had left behind. If an SI employee had only now stumbled on it, he must have set it up in a really strange place too. It was no doubt years old and already woefully out of date, but it was worth a look. Besides, it might be from his time as a weapons dealer and he didn't want any of _that_ being used ever again.

The flight to Stark Industries was short, but Pepper was already outside waiting for him. As beautiful as ever. Time itself seemed reluctant to touch her. He smiled and kissed her on the cheek, because he still loved her even if it was more like the sort of fondness one had for an old souvenir that gathered dust on a shelf. To her credit, she barely stiffened under his touch and her smile looked sincere enough.

“So, where is this baby of mine?”

Pepper rolled her eyes. They were in more familiar territory now.

“You do realize we had to evacuate the whole building, Tony? Every minute is costing you thousands.”

Tony looked around, and sure enough, a large crowd was gathered around at a safe distance. A few of them waved at him, so he returned it in kind. He loved having fans. They never cared if you were a dick.

“Show me the way, then, Pep!”

His clandestine workshop was so far out of the way, he must have really hated whatever meeting he'd slipped out of. And at basement level too… What the hell had he been doing here?

He directed a repulsor light at the jumble of metal and wires. There was a good coat of dust there. No wonder it didn't ring a bell. This was old… like still-trying-to-grow-an-awesome-goatee old. He turned over a metal disk and almost choked on his surprise because there was a tiny Captain America shield staring back at him.

“Is it dangerous?” Pepper asked from the doorway.

Depended on what you considered dangerous. This could very well get him teased to death if it got out.

“Nope. Nothing to worry about. I think it's been here longer than the janitor. You know the one with the grey hair who's always whining about how things were better in the good’ol days?”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, yeah. It's just a toy really. Not even worth the metal I used to make it.”

Trying to create a substitute to vibranium at fifteen had been ambitious, to say the least, and an utter failure. The paint job on the shield was perfect though, which sucked right now because it made the thing immediately recognizable. Pepper narrowed her eyes at him in that way she did to gauge how honest he was being, then excused herself to get everyone back to work and asked him to get rid of the mess, which he agreed to easily enough, but not too much so as not to arouse suspicion. Pepper would definitely tell Steve if she found out his dirty secret, never matter how old it was.

Tony waited until the echo of her heels had disappeared down the corridor and picked up the toy shield. It was only about half the size of the real one, but it had good balance and a rap on the dome proved it had a nice ring to it. He wondered what sort of metal he’d managed to cook up. A vague memory of sneaking into his father's workshop told him there was little chance it was something as common as iron. He could bring it back to his lab at the tower to check out since it would be a shame to throw it away without satisfying his curiosity. Covering it with an old oilcloth lying on the bench of the makeshift workshop, Tony tucked it under his arm and junked the rest. He took to the air, waved Pepper goodbye through her office window and landed back at the tower.

“Oh, hi! Didn't know you'd been called on a mission.”

Tony would have jumped out of his armor if he hadn't done away with it already. As it was, he only dropped his shield with a resounding twang that made him cringe.

“Cap. You trying to give an old man a heart attack? What're you doing here?”

Steve lifted his bowl of healthily disgusting cereals and fruits while Tony picked up his shameful secret from the floor as casually as possible.

“Breakfast. Most important meal of the day. You should try it sometimes,” Steve replied staring at his package as if he could see through the cloth.

He couldn't. Tony had checked his file after he'd first fallen victim to those baby blues’ intense scrutiny, but no: x-ray vision was not a part of the supersoldier package. Thank God.

“In my world, it's called coffee and I wouldn't change it for the world.”

Steve made his sad face, the manipulative bastard.

“You can't just live off caffeine and fast-food, Tony. It's not healthy.”

Tony stared at Mr Perfect, his bowl, his full spoon hovering just above the bowl and smirked.

“Fine,” he said and stole his spoon to pick it clean. Uhmm, Captain America flavoured oatmeals. He could make an effort if that's what he got for breakfast every morning. Steve was gaping at him and Tony would love to say it make him look slightly less attractive but that would be a lie. Wrong-footing the Captain was fun though and Tony chuckled as he left him behind, spoonless and frowning at his bowl. His own treasure tucked safely under his arm, he hurried over to his workshop where he unwrapped his mini-shield with care. He thought scratching some metal from the underside would be child's play, but whatever he had cooked up had made the surface almost as hard and impenetrable as the real deal. If only he could remember… But he had done so much in between, not to mention he'd put his body through the wringer more than once, including drugs, alcohol, near-death experiences, poison… He turned it over and stared at the perfect white star on the front in the hopes it would trigger a memory while his sample was being analyzed but a bowl suddenly appeared under his nose. A bowl of oatmeal and fruit. 

Oh… fuck.

“You already have a spoon so-” Steve cut himself off and Tony, who had already gone as stiff as a board stopped breathing altogether.

Why the fuck had he not locked his workshop? Was he suicidal? Why would he do this to himself? Of course Steve would come snooping after his unusual behaviour, that's what the Captain did. Everyone thought he walked the straight and narrow, but he was always snooping if he thought it was for the greater good.

“What is- Is that-” Steve shook his head. “Why do you have a miniature of my shield? You didn't shrink it, did you?”

Tony couldn't help the nervous chuckle that escaped him. That was actually a good explanation and he would run with it if he thought he could get away with it, but this shield was not made of vibranium and he would not put Steve at risk by making him think it was.

“Tony?”

Tony let his head fall, unable to meet his earnest gaze. Even so, he couldn't lie to him. One did not simply lie outright in the face of Captain America. Might as well try to kick a puppy. Impossible.

“Just something I made as a kid. Pepper called me this morning when someone stumbled on it, gathering dust in a corner of SI, you know. Didn't want to toss it out so… I was just… uhm… cleaning it up some.”

“Can I?”

Steve's large hands came into view and Tony sighed as he handed it over. It was nothing like the one his father had gifted him. He knew Steve wouldn't laugh or show contempt. He was too damn nice to do anything of the sort, but he might say it was cute. Urgh. Cute. He was Ironman. He was a genius. He was anything but cute. The ring of metal vibrating made him glance up just in time to see Steve's radiant smile as he looked at the baby-shield.

“This is really good. It's not vibranium, I can tell. What did you make it out of?”

“I, uh, don't remember. It was a _really_ long time ago.”

His analysis chose that moment to emit an obnoxiously loud ping while blinking happily on the closest hologram screen. Tony couldn't help at how his eyebrows shot up in disbelief.

“Huh. Looks like I managed to create a new alloy as a kid.”

“Really?” Steve asked and leaned closer to him to stare at the results of the analysis.

Tony did his best not to breathe in lungfuls of eau-de-Steve because it was preventing his brain from thinking straight. Ha! Straight. How ironic.

“That's amazing, Tony. Think I can actually use this shield in the field?”

Tony tried to imagine the great Captain America wielding his miniature shield and snorted.

“Only if you're up to hearing any number of jokes and variations thereof about your shield shrinking in the wash. What are you gonna do with it anyway? Throw it at midgets? Deflect mosquitoes?”

Steve hummed but seemed really disappointed. If younger-him had known how much his teenage crush actually liked his weird shield, he would have burst with joy. Probably literally. Hormones. What can you do? He did want to cheer Steve up however.

“So what should I call this new alloy? Stevium? Rogersium? Captain Alloy? Not-quite-vibranium?”

“Stevium? You'd name your metal after me?”

 _Oh honey, I'd conquer a planet to name it after you if I didn't know you'd scold me for it._ Tony shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant.

“I'd name it after me, but I've been told, repeatedly, that my ego doesn't need to get any bigger.”

Steve winced. And yes, he had been one of those to tell him as much, but Tony hadn't meant it as a jab, just trying to get their talk to something's my more familiar because Steve's eyes weren't usually so soft when directed his way and it had unnerved him. Anyone who held anything for him but amusement, contempt or passing tolerance set him on edge. He'd let Obadiah be close and he'd betrayed him. He had let Happy close and he had almost died. Same for Pepper, _and_ he had let himself love her which that had ended terribly. It was no good. The only way he wouldn't suffer or make other suffer was if he remained an island. Sure, he was part of a team, but as long as he kept it “professional”, no one would be hurt.

“That's not true,” Steve said with his convincing voice, taking a step closer.

Tony scoffed and pushed himself of his stool to take a step back.

“It's not,” Steve insisted and damnit, did the man not understand the concept of personal space? “I know I said things, when I didn't know any better. I didn't know you like I do now.”

Tony opened his mouth to make him stop. Maybe if he said something particularly hurtful, Steve would leave him be once more and stop looking at him like… like he had hung the moon or something.

“You know nothing, Capsicle. You don't even know how to tweet or change your Netflix icon.”

The blank look that crossed Steve's face told him he'd nailed it. Alright, it wasn't so bad as far as insults went but for a man from the forties, he was actually quite up to date now, so he'd had to settle for the little things. Steve shook his head.

“Not important. You can show me later,” Steve said, his resolute gaze fixated on him once more.

Tony raised an eyebrow at his presumptuousness.

“I can add two and two, you know,” he continued and moved closer.

Tony made to take another step back when he realized he couldn't, stuck between his workbench and Steve.

“Erm..”

Great. Very eloquent. What was next? Blushing like a maiden? Tony looked down at his feet, just in case, because his cheeks did feel a bit warm. 

“Tony.” 

Oh fuckfuckfuck. Just the way he said his name, and then his index finger tilted his chin up… Damn prude actually had some moves on him! Maybe if he squeezed his eyes shut, it wouldn't be real. It would just be a dream. A very nice dream Tony never wanted to wake from. But he wasn't a coward, despite his many flaws, so he kept his eyes open when Steve pressed closer, and closer.

“Are you trying to kill me?” Tony muttered because he couldn't breathe properly and he'd rather blame it on Steve's bulging muscles pressing against him than admitting anyone could have such an effect on his heart.

“I'd much rather kiss you.”

Tony choked on the breath he had been holding and coughed a few times before he could finally speak.

“I can't believe you just up and said that.”

“That's not a no.”

Damn his heart and its inability to protect itself. He couldn't say no to Steve if his life depended on it.

“So kiss me already, Captain.”

  
  



End file.
